INDIAN DRAGONFLIES. 



931 



and will be found to have a habit of dancing in the air in large numbers' 

 looking for all the world like a swarm of gigantic and glorified gnats. 



Fig. 



51. 



-Wings of $ Mhyothemis variegata variegata (x 2'2). 



63. Rhyothemis phyllis phyllis, Hagen. 



Lihdlula phyllis, Sulzer. 

 Celythemis phyllis, Brauer. 

 Lihellula quadripunctata, Roemer. 

 Libellula vittata, Weber. 



Male. Expanse 8:2 mm. Length 38 mm. 



Female. Expanse 70 mm. Length 32 mm. 



The sexes very similar in colour although difl'ering in size and somewhat 

 in shape. Phyllis is probably the parent form of variegata and if a 

 heavily marked male of the former be compared with a lightly marked 

 male of the latter, the differences will be seen to be almost negligible. 

 The female of variegata has probably evolved from phyllis by a clearing of 

 the apices of the wings and an increase in size of the markings at the base 

 until the spots coalesced. 



Head : eyes reddish brown above, olivaceous at the sides and beneath ; 

 occiput black ; vesicle and forehead metallic green ; face and labrum a 

 golden yellow ; labium darker yellow or brown. 



Prothorax black. 



Thorax metallic coppery in the male, metallic green in the female. 

 Legs black. 



Abdomen black with a more or less metallic lustre, pruinose beneath in 

 the male only. 



Wings entirely suffused with golden yellow, darker at the base and along 

 the costa and in the hind distinctly opalescent. Marked with black as 

 follows : — A nodal spot, larger in the fore than in the hind wing and larger 

 in the female than in the male ; the apices of all wings halfway to stigma, 

 paler in the female: a diffuse spot at the outer angle of trigone, larger in 

 the female ; two broad, irregular transverse bands at the base, extending 

 variably outward to the 2nd or 4th antenodal nervuie and to the distal 

 end of the trigone or ]| cells beyond the posterior band, to well beyond 

 the outer angle of loop. In the female and also not unoccasionally 



